This is a guest post from Voyager, a crypto brokerage firm with a commission-free trading app.
In 2013, the founder of Dogecoin (DOGE), Jackson Palmer, tweeted, “Investing in Dogecoin, pretty sure it’s the next big thing” with a picture of an internet-famous Shiba Inu. Palmer’s tweet went viral and caught the attention of a blockchain developer who decided to turn the meme into a real cryptocurrency with a protocol similar to Bitcoin. Interest in the light-hearted crypto-asset quickly grew and so did its market cap.
In 2019, Dogecoin got another viral boost when Elon Musk jokingly took the position of the CEO, changing his Twitter bio to reflect his “new job.”
This week, DOGE grabbed the attention of social media again thanks to TikTok user James Galante. “Let’s all get rich,” he told his followers in a video that now has more than 900,000 views. “Dogecoin is practically worthless,” Galante continued. “There are 800 million TikTok users. Once it hits $1, you’ll have $10,000. Tell everyone you know.”
His video went viral across TikTok and Twitter, and the price of Dogecoin skyrocketed from $0.0023 to $0.0056 – a 140% increase. The trend even caught the attention of Barstool Sport’s Dave Portnoy, who has become a self-proclaimed day trader amid the coronavirus lockdown.
“Everyone is buying this Dogecoin. It’s a pump-and-dump. Dogecoin is bubbly rose,” Portney told his viewers.
DDTG Managing Partner & CEO @stoolpresidente with a succinct explanation on the current $DOGE situation pic.twitter.com/4GRmRwMwP5
— Rob "Crypto Bobby" Paone (@crypto_bobby) July 8, 2020
While Dogecoin is a legitimate cryptocurrency, it’s recent price movement was a bit like a boozy carbonated beverage. An army of TikTokers drank up large amounts of the cheap crypto asset, driving up its value. As it started to spike, even more people invested, not to miss out on the drunken-rally.
Unfortunately, DOGE’s hangover is already setting in. It’s currently trading around $0.0038, down 32% from this week’s high.
DeFi Tokens Beat Out BTC
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have grown exponentially over the past three months. Data provided by Messari shows 10 DeFi tokens (including MKR, KNC, ZRX, and ETH listed on Voyager) grew between 41% and 804% since April 8, compared to Bitcoin and the broader crypto market which only gained 27%.
DeFi tokens have become extremely popular due to “Yield Farming,” a process that lets users of decentralized applications get rewarded with tokens and yield on top of liquidity supplied to dapps, resulting in high return rates. According to DeCrypt, $25 million per month has been paid out in rewards from DeFi tokens.
Blockchain to the Moon
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield believes blockchain technology can help solve some of the complex issues facing space programs worldwide.
“If you make a mistake, you kill people or you have billions and billions of dollars worth of damage,” said Hadfield in an interview with Forkast. He explained that blockchain technology is a “natural application” that can help check the accuracy of data and increase the overall efficiency of the assembly and execution of vehicles and rocket launches.
“People are starting to recognize you can set up a nodal structure using a task-specific design blockchain asset in orbit,” said Hadfield. “So that’s one side of it, just using the geometry and the isolation and therefore the appeal of that for the security and the globalization of blockchain.”
He also believes that humans will start mining resources from the moon that could result in trillions of dollars in riches with the help of blockchain technology.
Read This…
Coindesk: As Gold Hits 9-Year High, Bitcoin Eyes Price Breakout
Coindesk: Copper Now Enables Funds to Create Complex Crypto-Backed Securities
CoinTelegraph: Jim Jefferies Owns Four Times as Much Bitcoin as Elon Musk
The original Voyager post can be read here. You can earn $25 in BTC by signing up for the Voyager app and trading $100 (or use code SLUDGE25).
